Power rising electronic devices are commonly used in various applications, such as analog calculating systems, for example. A power rising electronic device provides an output current which is a function of a power of an input current with either a positive or negative relative whole-number exponent. In the case of a square law electronic device, the output current is proportional to the square of the input current.
Power rising electronic devices are formed with one or more multiplier circuits. A disadvantage of this approach is that the electronic device requires a fairly complex structure. If the electronic device is produced in an integrated form on a chip of semiconductor material, a considerable amount of surface area of the semiconductor material is required. Moreover, multiplier circuits require very precise tuning of their components to prevent drift of the output current due to temperature variations, for example.
A different approach includes the use of one or more MOS field effect transistors in which the current at the drain terminal is proportional to the square of the voltage between the source terminal and the gate terminal. However, this relationship is significantly influenced by variations in temperature, and in the drain terminal voltage so that the electronic device is not very precise.